All loaded and ready to go
Captain Charlie Donilon prepares bait
Robin Reed in the shark cage (summer 2003)
In the summers of 2002 and 2003, Veronica and I went with a group of friends to try our hand at blue shark diving off Point Judith, Rhode Island with Capitan Charlie Donilon aboard the Snappa. As with most wild animal encounters, we were at the mercy of luck and our comfort or discomfort was dictated by sea conditions. In 2002, the sea conditions were extremely rough with seas up to 8 feet. It was a good day for blue sharks and we had them around the boat most of the day. It happened to be a bad day for me and my camera as mechanical problems left me without any usable photos.
The summer of 2003 came quickly and the bright summer sun made the boat a very comfortable platform. Unfortunately, the calm seas were not favorable to enticing sharks close to the boat and we saw three sharks the entire day. They did not seem interested in the chunks of fish that we were offering and our encounters were short and it was hard to predict where a shark would appear. This made photography difficult.
Blue shark diving is an iffy proposition. If everything works right, it is an incredible day. If not, it can be boring waiting for them to appear. In any case, Capitan Charlie Donilon makes the day as exciting as he can. I recommend him highly. For those in our group that didn't dive, the captain let them tag sharks that took the bait on our non-hooked line. He made everyone feel special. He is a hardworking and dedicated individual that wants you to have the best day that you can. Since our last visit, Charlie has stopped charter work. In the last few years, it became harder and harder to find sharks and people who paid for a dive of shark diving were disappointed. I don't know the reason for the decline although I suspect overfishing and ocean pollution but it is a shame that others will not have the opportunity to see these magnificent animals.
We did return one more time in the summer of 2009 and our luck really improved.
